Lost Time Memories
by ArgentaAquamarine
Summary: Some things that are lost cannot be taken back. She is a mystery waiting to be solved. It started out as an interest to mysterious things, which then grew into feeling. And then that feeling grew stronger and stronger until it could not be contained anymore. He wants her to be by his side forever. With the secrets surrounding her, will it be possible?


Disclaimer : InuYasha and every characters of InuYasha universe belong to Takahashi Rumiko. I only own the plot and the OCs.

[ LOST TIME MEMORIES ]

| Chapter 1 |

Centuries had passed since the final battle with Naraku and the team that had done the honor split up to continue with their lives. The monk and the demon slayer went to marry and live together in the demon slayer village, recovering it back to its former glory. The young orphaned kitsune came by often to help out but his visits became rare after he had found his mate and settled down in one of the human villages, protecting it and helping the people there as payment to live at the village. The miko was sent back to her own period but returned three years later and married the hanyou.

The world had become somewhat peaceful after the defeat of Naraku and the disappearance of the Shikon no Tama.

Despite the happy ending everyone had, there was one that continued his journey across the land. Lord Sesshomaru of the Western Lands loved his land and people but his spirit still craved for something more, one last thing he never seemed to achieve. A worthy mate that he would forever love, just like how his father had loved his mother and Inuyasha's mother. He knew he had to go back to his land soon; he had duties to fulfill as the lord and an empire to build after all. Sesshomaru had searched his homeland and journeyed to the lands beyond, yet he still couldn't found the one fated for him.

Frustrated at his failure, he trooped back for his castle in the western lands and accepted that he couldn't find his mate for centuries ahead as he will immersed himself in his work before traveling the world again. It was really just his luck that he found himself facing over hundreds of demons alone after he sent Jaken and Ah-Uhn ahead. He wasn't intimidated – he had defeated Naraku after all – on the contrary he felt delighted to find something he could unleashed his frustration on. With a cool glare from Sesshomaru, the battle begun.

The daiyoukai purposely did not draw his sword so he could feel satisfied hacking at the foolish lesser demon. As the battle drew on, he found his guard slipping and those blasted lesser demon managed to scratch him. Instead of drawing his sword, the sight and smell of blood only manage to excite his beast even more. With newfound strength he charged again barehanded, eyes starting to bleed red as he slowly let his beast took control. It was thrilling – fun, dare he say it – and it was an experience he was deprived off since he took charge over Rin, his beloved human ward.

The excitement wore off in only a few minute as again, his guard slipped and the lesser demon managed to injure him. It turned into anger in the second he realized the lesser demons managed to slash his chest and clawed his shoulder. His hands glowed for the tiniest bit before turning into sickly green color as his dokkasou dripped down on to mother earth. The lesser demons paused in a short second, but Sesshomaru used the chance to its fullest.

It was brutal and quick. In just a few minutes, Sesshomaru was the last one standing the clearing, surrounded by the unrecognizable body parts of a lesser demons and blood. The world was silent around him, and he could hear his slow and heavy pants. Forcing his deadly acid to be a slow reacting and deadly poison was taxing in his body. Darkness started to seep in his sight but he shook it away as he walked towards a nearby stream, leaving the bloodied clearing for nature to clean.

His body felt weak, his head was pounding, and his ears were ringing. Pain throbbed in his chest and shoulder as red liquid kept leaking from his wounds. He dragged his feet towards the stream but as the goal was in sight, he lost whatever strength left and fell down. His ears twitched as he heard light footsteps and bushes disturbed. He let his eyes glanced at the general direction of the sound and caught a shadow of something moving under the shadows of the trees. As his consciousness slipped, he could barely see a human shaped figure walking to him with hurried steps. Sesshomaru glanced up for the last time only to see a pair of lovely different-colored eyes staring at him.

Then everything went black.

* * *

The first thing Sesshomaru felt when he woke up was warmness. He was cocooned under something warm, a bit rough but warm and comfortable. The next thing was the smell of herbal medicine in the air and the soft almost gentle crackle of fire. There was no extra heartbeat so he was alone. He tried to move his body, but his body refused to move at all. His mind was still foggy, and for all he's worth, Sesshomaru had trouble figuring out what was going on. It had been a long time since he got into such condition and Sesshomaru felt uncomfortable. His thoughts were brought back to his fight – one-sided massacre, to be exact – with the lesser demons and the gory aftermath. His brain got more oxygen, and soon enough his mind worked fine again. He remembered everything now.

Sesshomaru finally opened his eyes. He had expected to see the soft, white moonlight or even the enchanting fiery skies of dawn shining upon his face, but nothing of the short happened. There were no stars, and there was no enchanting sky. Instead, there was a ceiling above him. Right next to him, there was a wall. The bed under him felt a bit lumpy, but it was still passable. The warm thing he was wrapped in was a layer of blanket.

He turned his head to the left and calculated that he was in some sort of study room or maybe a bedroom. The room was small, but it had some modest, wooden furniture. There was a small, desk-like table in the far corner of the room. Some books were stacked on it, and there was a candle that lit up part of the room. There was also a window next to the desk, diagonally on the opposite of Sesshomaru. Right next to the bed he occupied there was a small bedside table with herbal medicines placed in clay bottles. There was also a small fireplace with a gently crackling fire as it swayed according to the wind.

Sesshomaru tried to move his arm again, and this time he succeeded. He could feel the stiff bandages on his shoulder and chest but it lacked the texture of his usual outfit. He looked down and he noticed that he was stripped to his white shitagi. He managed to get his arm from underneath the covers and noticed that he seemed paler than usual and his stripes stood out very much. For a while, he looked at his paler than usual skin, but it didn't struck him as strange. It was probably because the amount of blood he lost.

Carefully, Sesshomaru tried to sit up in the bed. Sharp pain shot from his shoulder in protest. There was no way he would give up now, though, so until he actually sat, Sesshomaru ignored the pain. When he finally sat up straight in the bed, he looked down again and noticed that he was wearing a loose black hakama that certainly didn't belong to him, and that most of his upper body was covered in bandages under the white shitagi he wore. His mokomoko-sama twitched and rewrapped itself on his uninjured shoulder. He scanned the room for his clothes, his armor, or even his swords but the aforementioned items were not in the room.

For a moment, Sesshomaru thought back about the battle, and the gory aftermath. He collapsed near the stream, and he had definitely seen someone approached him before he lost consciousness. Could this person be the one who had nursed him? His mind wandered to his first meeting with his human ward where Rin cared for him after his battle with Inuyasha. Just as fast as the thought hit him, he banished it away from his mind. Rin had died centuries ago, and it would do him better not to think of her too much. With an absent and soundless sigh, he ran his hand over the bandaged area on his body.

His wounds after the battle were not fatal; it was just large gash wounds that made him bleed too much that he lost his consciousness. If anything, his body was just exhausted after the battle and needed rest. He pulled his white shitagi off and placed his hand on his bandages. Using his hand as the conduit, he directed his youki to heal his wounds. He could feel his energy weave around him before entering his wound, forcing his body to heal faster and his skin to reattach in no time at all. After a few minutes, his wounds were freshly healed and with just a bit rest, he was back to full health.

He moved his claw to hook it around the bandaged and rip it away, revealing smooth skin underneath. Sesshomaru's ears twitched when he heard the same light footsteps coming. It seemed whoever it was had come back. The door from across the room was opened and Sesshomaru turned his head in the door's direction. He noticed a slim figure in the doorway with long, silky white hair that nearly brushed the floor. The person noticed Sesshomaru was awake and in a sitting position so approached him with tray in hand.

"You are awake. As expected of a daiyoukai, it hasn't been a full day yet here you are awake and looking good as new," the person complimented in calm voice and set the tray on the table. Sesshomaru eyed the person. It was a woman in her early twenties clad in elegant yet simple white kimono with light blue obi. She currently had her back to him, so he couldn't really identify her but he could hear her heartbeat, calm as the sea even in the presence of a daiyoukai. Sesshomaru knew the woman was a human from her scent, but there was something strange in the mix, something he could not tell.

The woman turned around to regard him and Sesshomaru found himself holding his breath under the scrutiny of those lovely different-colored eyes. Her right eye was pale green whilst her left eye was light blue-gray. Her long hair was gathered in a loose ponytail with white cloth and her breast-length locks framed her face. Neatly cut bangs fell on her face and half hid her eyes from the world. Her skin was pale, almost as pale as snow and it made her look very frail. Her mouth was pulled into a dark frown when she saw the ripped bandages.

She huffed, shook her head before taking a cup of something warm from the tray, and walked towards him. "I know you heal fast, and I know it was almost unnecessary to give you this medicine, but please appreciate the effort I make," she said pointedly in her soft yet stern voice, gesturing at the ruined bandages.

Sesshomaru scoffed. "I don't need these," he said as he tugged the already ruined bandages and put them on the bedside table out of politeness. She eyed the bandages before moving to sit at the bedside and gave him the cup. It was filled with warm tea and something else mixed in, from the smell, he could tell it was some kind of herbal medicine, as he had smelled the same thing from the medicine at his bedside table. He nodded at her as received the cup and slowly drained the content.

The woman moved to take the ripped bandage and threw it into the fireplace. There was silence as Sesshomaru watched her flitted about in the room. "I found you when I was gathering medical herbs," she explained as she stirred something on a big pot. "Imagine my surprise to find a daiyoukai unconscious near a stream because of blood loss. I put medicine to stop the bleeding and bandage it," she took a bowl and poured the thing she cooked.

Wordlessly, she gave him the bowl of steaming hot food before fetching some again to eat. He eyed the food and glanced at her, eating the food slowly but casually. As if it was a confirmation, he dug in and marveled at the wonderful taste. Sesshomaru was not one for fancy food, he could go for days on end without food, but this food made by this female human was absolutely amazing. He paused in his eating to look up at the woman. "What is this?" he asked.

The woman cocked her head. "What? It is just a vegetable soup added with a few herbs for sharp flavor. Is it not to your liking?" she asked, blinking her eyes at him inquisitively.

He shook his head. "No, this one never had a cooking with this taste before, but this one finds the flavor… savory," he said after a moment of consideration. The woman merely nodded, accepting his words and went back to her food. It was silent for a moment as the two finished their meal. The woman finished first as she stood up and looked at Sesshomaru to see if he was finished. Sesshomaru finished the last of his food as she leaned down to take the bowl. It was then that Sesshomaru saw for the first time in the dim lighting the shadows in her eyes and the tiredness in her aura. It was as if she held something heavy on her small shoulders.

She swiftly took the bowl away, moved to the table, and stacked the dirty bowl away to be washed. She took something from the tray and walked back to his bedside. It was a bowl of apples and grapes. "Fruits?" she offered. When he gave no answers, she raised an eyebrow. "I am trying to be hospitable here. Your wounds may have healed but don't think I didn't know you still need a bit of rest. After you eat this fruits you should rest, then you may go in the morning," she said as she plopped down on the bedside again and peeled the apple with a knife.

Sesshomaru eyed her silently. "Who are you? This one will never forget to repay his debts, even to humans," he said.

The woman turned to look at him; brows raised in a surprised manner before she broke into a light chuckle and went back to her task. "It is alright, you need not to repay this simple act of kindness. Everyone would do the same if they ever saw something like that, it was just a common sense," she said dodging the question quite expertly.

"I insist," Sesshomaru replied.

She sliced the apple and offered him one. "Why do you want to know my name so much? It will mean nothing in the end," she said.

"It will mean something," he replied stubbornly and a bit childishly, but outwardly, he seemed cool and aloof.

She rolled her eyes and sighed as if it was a great burden telling him her name. "Fine, may name is… Chouko," she said with a bit resignation. "Chou from butterfly and ko from child," she explained as she offered another lice of apple.

"Chouko," Sesshomaru tested the name. It was beautiful and it was befitting the woman before him. She was just as beautiful and frail as a butterfly. Sesshomaru turned assessing eyes on her. "Why is your scent different than normal human? It is not quite the scent of a hanyou either, what are you?" he enquired with narrowed eyes.

Chouko stiffened for a moment but quickly resumed her task. If Sesshomaru wasn't a youkai with enhanced senses, he might not picked up on the subtle tenseness framing her shoulders and the slight pick up on her heart rate. "Did you know not of courtesy? It is polite of you to tell your name after your partner gave you theirs. Besides, aren't you asking something too personal out of me?" she replied with a subtle but sharp warning tone.

"I am Lord Sesshomaru of the Western Lands. This one will never forget your kindness and will strive to repay it back to you," he said with an even tone, seemingly unaffected by her sharp warning. He looked at her but she refused to meet his eyes. Sesshomaru tried for a minute but then closed his eyes. It was clear that the woman refused to tell him anything. Sesshomaru could handle that; he could piece it together bit by bit, as she slipped up information unconsciously. He had no love for unclear things or information but he liked harmless mysteries or puzzles. He never had the patience for the complex ones, but by taking care of Rin, he had learned patience, no matter how short it was.

Chouko gave him the last slice before moving to the table and gathered the dirty dishes. "You should rest some more, I will be by the stream you found me if you need anything. You are free to go whenever you want, I will prepare your things soon," she said as she hefted the basket containing dirty dishes. "Well then, it was nice meeting you Lord Sesshomaru," she said with a thin smile before walking out of the door and out of the small hut.

Sesshomaru watched her leave without uttering any word, his ears following the movement of her feet against mother earth until he could hear no more. With a bit of consideration, Sesshomaru leaned back and lied on the bed. It would be a long journey back to his lands and he was in no hurry. He could certainly enjoy the bed offered to him too.

He closed his eyes and remembered the woman Chouko. She was interesting and full of mysteries. He liked it. She intrigued him and he would make sure to unravel the mystery that was a female human by the name Chouko.

* * *

 **A/N :**

 **Well, this is just a story created while trying to escape reality for a moment. To tell you the truth I did not watch or read InuYasha until the end so there might be some faults here and there. Please kindly tell me the mistakes I've made either on reviews or directly PM me.**

 **Not sure if I will continue it, but if it is received well and many want it to be continued, then I will try my best to do so. Please give me reviews, because it will really make me happy and motivate me to continue!**

 **ArgentaAquamarine out!**


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